


And do my spiriting gently

by thinlizzy2



Category: The Tempest - Shakespeare
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-13
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-30 08:26:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3929899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinlizzy2/pseuds/thinlizzy2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All is not as it seems on Prospero's island, but that is no coincidence.  The island is Ariel's domain, and zie is the one who shapes the reality there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And do my spiriting gently

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sevenofspade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenofspade/gifts).



Ariel awakens and breathes in the scent of the air. The tang of rain is present along with the ever-present saltiness of the ocean. Zie catches a whiff of ozone and a barely detectable crackle of electricity. Zie prepares zer body and mind. What will happen today?

*

The ship, when it arrives, is a mystery unlike any Ariel has seen before.

It is constructed from parts of the corpses of dead trees, with metal spikes driven through them to keep them fastened together. Great sheets have been deployed to catch the wind; these are woven from plant fibers which have somehow been altered. Nature has cried out for its mutilated children, the trees and the plants, and angry storms have lashed large holes in the construct. Still, it is impressive enough for Ariel to be fascinated, and zie scampers through the ship with unrestrained eagerness. Where did it come from? What manner of being could have built it? A change in the air draws zer attention, and then zie sees them: the man is gaunt and bearded while the child is wide-eyed and preternaturally calm. 

And, suddenly, the ship is no longer the greatest mystery Ariel has ever seen.

**

It would be easy to let them die. Ariel lets things die every day, if they are hurt or old or needed as food. Occasionally a mother mouse will refuse to nurse her young and an entire litter will perish. Sometimes a storm will wash away a spider's egg sac, and hundreds of lives will be lost.

So what do these two matter?

Then again it would be nearly as easy to save them. Not exactly as simple, but close enough.

Ariel decides that if the west wind blows in the morning, zie will allow them to perish if they can not survive on their own. If the wind comes from the east, zie will show mercy.

When the warm southern wind accompanies the rising sun, Ariel makes zer own choice.

***

Prospero is oddly unable to accept Ariel’s willingness to help. He is suspicious, always demanding to know what Ariel wants in exchange for zer assistance. He accuses Ariel of wanting to steal from his larder, even though zie has explained several times that zie does not eat the things the humans eat. Then he becomes convinced that Ariel will steal Miranda from him, as if one living being can own another, as though a living creature is a thing that can be stolen.

So Ariel designs a new memory for Prospero, disconnecting synapses in his primitive brain and connecting the loose ends to other things. And now Prospero believes that he was Ariel’s savior, and that Ariel owes him a debt. This does not eliminate his suspicions of Ariel completely, but eases them enough that zie is satisfied.

But now Prospero becomes fearful of enemies that are not even there at all. He threatens every shadow and declares war on the rustling of the leaves and the songs of the birds. It seems that Prospero needs an adversary, someone to hate, or he will just hate everything.

Ariel thinks on this for a while, and then plants the image of Caliban in Prospero’s mind. It serves its purpose perfectly. Prospero finds a target for his unquenchable hatred and is therefore sated. Ariel puzzles at this but decides, in the end, that it is merely something else to learn about.

****

Prospero believes he can do magic.

The idea is so ludicrous that Ariel laughs for days. Prospero says words, makes crude gestures while he waves his arms around, mixes bits of mashed leaves with bits of dry leaves and rages at the results as if he had somehow expected any other result than leaf-muck. And he calls this doing magic.

He does not know what Ariel knows. Magic is not a skill one can learn or even an innate talent to be developed. It is like breathing, like seeing, like thinking, like singing. Either one is already doing it, all the time, from creation onwards, or one cannot do it at all.

But Ariel is a kindhearted being. So zie makes Prospero’s leaf concoctions glow in the dark or catch on fire. It is no effort at all, and the joy which this brings to the man is rather sweet.

*****

Miranda grows strong and Ariel rejoices in that. Zie has no young of zer own, having never met another of zer kind. In fact, zie does not know if there are others like zer in the world. But perhaps Miranda has somehow come to fill that role in Ariel's existence.

Or possibly Miranda is simply a joy to behold, like any healthy animal. She is bare-skinned and brown under the sun, well-muscled from her days spent climbing over rocks and shimmying up trees. She sucks the juices from fruits with the unquenchable thirst of the insects and feasts on fish as hungrily as any sea-bird. She is a force of nature, powerful as a tempest, glorious to experience.

So neither she nor Ariel can understand why Prospero insists on continuing to call her _child_ and warning her to be careful and stay close by him, as if there were anything on the island from which _he_ could protect _Miranda._

To Ariel this is merely curious, but to Miranda it is infuriating. Ariel tries to dissuade her as she nails and sews, making repairs in the vessel that delivered her here years ago. But Miranda has her own will and knows her own mind, and she has set that will and that mind on leaving here. Ariel cannot stop her and should not try.

But when zie returns to Prospero, zie finds the old man calling for his daughter as if she were just around the corner, lingering over a pretty leaf or other triviality and making him wait. So Ariel solidifies that belief. More that, zie gives Prospero the daughter he truly wanted; the Miranda zie creates for Prospero is a naïve and innocent child who will never venture into the wilderness without a man by her side to care for her. 

Zie feels a slight tremble of guilt for the real Miranda, but reminds zerself that she can manage her own course with aplomb. It is Prospero who needs protection.

******

Prospero is dying.

Ariel knows it; Zie has seen many things die. Some have been eaten, some injured beyond healing. Some have sickened until death came for them. A very fortunate few have simply succumbed to old age.

Prospero is one of those lucky ones. But he does not wish to lie quietly in a dark and private space, like a mountain lion who knows he can never climb again. He will not wish the world a gentle and generous goodbye like a gull who flies further out to sea than he ever has before, so that the ocean that fed him can reclaim his body as food for fish. No, Prospero fights death as if he were its’ unwilling prey, as if he never understood that all things must die. Apparently, he still has work to do in this life.

Prospero’s work thus far has amounted to a handful of illusions and a disappeared child, but he does not know that. And since Ariel has chosen to spare him that great disappointment, there is no reason not to spare him smaller ones. 

So for the many days and nights of Prospero’s weakening and death, zie spins great and elaborate illusions from the air. Another ship – why not? – and a flock of men. Miranda settled and happy, in a simple way that would no doubt prove deeply unsatisfying over time but which will endure for the brief period of respite for which it was needed. There is forgiveness in all quarters, between the wrong-doing and the wronged, masters and servants, brothers and enemies.

And there is forgiveness of the demons in Prospero’s mind, represented by his belief in Caliban. 

In that instant, when Prospero acknowledges that Caliban is his own thing, Ariel feels a sharp bolt of shock. The man can learn! He can change, and adjust! Ariel never knew, never even imagined it possible. Zie curses the lost time; zie wants to press Prospero to say more, to demonstrate further knowledge gained and surprise zer again and again. This being that zie had taken for a poor dumb thing, to be spared and nurtured with a sort of luxurious mercy - it can think!

But then there is a shuddering breath and an earthly rattle, and Prospero is gone.

*******

Ariel awakens and breathes in the scent of the air. The aroma of sun-baked sand is present along with the ever-present richness of the grasses. Zie catches a whiff of pollen and a barely detectable hum of honeybees’ wings. Zie prepares zer body and mind. What will happen today? 

**Author's Note:**

> Written for sevenofspade for Night on Fic Mountain. I was delighted to get to work with Ariel's character for a while; it's one that I've always found fascinating. I decided to focus on your request for a bittersweet ending, and "what ifs". I hope you like the end result!


End file.
